I was reading today where German Billionaire Adolf Merckle, one of Germany’s wealthiest men, committed suicide after weeks of talks with creditors designed to save his businesses from being consumed by disastrous investments and the global financial crisis.
My initial thought was "What a tragedy". After I thought about it a bit more I realized that while this is certainly a tragedy for Mr. Merckle's family and those that cared about him most, there is possibly a bit of a lesson in the tragedy. While nobody will ever know exactly what caused this highly successful 74 year old man to take his own life, one thing is for sure. It seems that he considered himself "less" because he was going to end up having less. I think the tragedy in this story and other similar stories is that people get so enthralled with their "stuff" that when it gets lost or stolen they consider themselves "less" of a person. The reality could not be further from the truth. If you are struggling right now try this. Turn your attention to gratitude and list the top 10 things that you have to be grateful for. Focus on those things for a while. You might be surprised at how it makes you feel.
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